Arsenal winger Leandro Trossard has heaped praise on captain Martin Odegaard following his match-winning assist against West Ham United in the Premier League.
The Gunners moved five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the standings following a 1-0 victory over the Hammers. Trossard scored the winner in the 83rd minute.
The Hammers found the back of the net in stoppage time, but the goal was rightly chalked off after VAR had found Pablo Felipe and Jean-Clair Todibo fouling David Raya in the box.
Trossard was adjudged the man of the match for his late goal. Speaking after the game, the Belgian credited Odegaard for his ‘amazing run’ and distribution in the lead-up to the winner.
He told BBC Radio Five Live: “It’s an amazing run from Martin [Odegaard]. He does so well to get the ball to me, and then just in that moment, I put all my power and precision on the ball to get it into the back of the net. It was such a relief to score that goal.”
We had predicted Odegaard to make the starting XI against the Hammers. The Norwegian had a brilliant record, before the derby, with seven goal contributions from his 11 previous meetings.
However, manager Mikel Arteta went with an unchanged starting XI for the third game in a row. The Spanish tactician eventually opted to replace Eberechi Eze with Odegaard in the 67th minute.
The £30 million signing made a defining mark in the game. Odegaard completed multiple short passes and finally got the space to run behind the defence to provide a cut back for Trossard to score.
Odegaard has been the subject of criticism from a small section of Arsenal fans this campaign. His injuries have not helped him find consistency, but yesterday’s assist should silence some of those critics.
Arsenal’s next league match will be against Burnley at home on May 18. They could win the title with a win if Man City fail to beat Crystal Palace in their game in hand at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday.
Stats from Sofascore
